With Thanksgiving right around the corner, a lot of you may be hosting family members and in-laws for dinner. To ensure your table is set correctly, just follow my handy guide below:
1.) Bread and butter plate: Place this above your salad and dinner fork (3 & 4), with the butter knife laying across horizontal.
2.) Napkin: Your napkin can either be rolled in a napkin holder or folded and placed underneath your salad and dinner fork (3 & 4). If rolled, you can also place your napkin above your salad and dinner plates (9 & 10).
3.) Salad fork: Your salad fork is the smaller fork and goes to the left of your dinner fork.
4.) Dinner fork: The dinner fork is to the right of your salad fork and closest to your dinner plate.
5.) Dessert spoon and fork: Place these horizontally above your salad and dinner plates (9 & 10).
6.) Water glass: The water goes to the left of the wine glass (7)
7.) Wine glass: The wine glass goes in the far upper right of the table setting, to the right of the water glass (6). If you’ll be serving both red and white wine, set them from left to right in the order in which they will be used.
8.) Coffee cup and saucer: These are brought out following dinner.
9.) Salad plate: The salad plate should be placed directly on top of your dinner plate (10).
10.) Dinner plate: The dinner plate is the anchor for your entire table setting and goes below your salad plate (9). On some occasions, you may have a decorative charger below your dinner plate.
11.) Steak/Dinner Knife: Place this knife closest to your plate on the right hand side with the blade facing inward.
12.) Teaspoon: This goes to the right of your dinner knife (11)
13.) Soup spoon: The larger spoon that goes to the right of your teaspoon (12)
If you’re at someone else’s dinner party and have suddenly forgotten which fork and spoon to use, just remember this – start from the outside going in. For example, start with your salad fork then work your way in to your dinner fork (same applies to your soup spoon and teaspoon).
One last tip – on less formal occasions, the bread and butter plate (1) and dessert spoon and fork (6) can be excluded.
